Dedicated to the Intellectual Brutality of Stanford Football

Class of 2012

02/01/2012

It's been a long, strange trip for Aziz Shittu, but the five-star defensive end finally arrived back where he started. Shittu originally committed to the Cardinal last May, but then backed out of that commitment only a month later. Initially there was speculation that he was concerned about whether or not he'd be able to gain admission (he would), but most felt Shittu simply wanted to enjoy the recruiting process (he did).

There were times during the fall when Shittu looked ticketed to any of a number of schools, most notably Oregon, Cal, UCLA, and USC. None of that matters now, though. Aziz is a Stanford Man.

When might we see him on the field? I'm betting it's pretty soon. Initially thought of as a defensive tackle, Shittu showed more athleticism during his senior season and through the all-star circuit in the late fall and currently projects as a defensive end. At 6'3" and 275 pounds, Shittu looks like he could either apprentice under tackle Terrence Stephens or compete for the open defensive spot left by the departing Matthew Masifilo. Even if Shittu doesn't earn a starting spot, he's too good to redshirt. Expect to see him on the field at some point this fall. But if you can't wait until then, check out his highlight package...

It's official -- David Shaw and company have assembled the best offensive line recruiting class in school history. Kyle Murphy, long believed to be a lock for Stanford, finally made it official this afternoon when he signed on the dotted line and became a Cardinal. At 6'7" and 275 pounds, the San Clemente High School offensive tackle is one of the highest rated players in the nation. Rivals.com gives him five stars and rates him the third best offensive tackle and the nineteenth best overall prospect. Beyond that, he's a straight A student.

Most offensive linemen take advantage of their redshirt year to bulk up and learn the more complicated blocking schemes necessary to play at the collegiate level, but Murphy has made it clear that he intends to compete for playing time as a freshman. With a gaping hole at left tackle following the departure of Jonathan Martin to the NFL, Coach Shaw will certainly be tempted to give the job to Murphy and rest easy for the next three years.

The ripple effect of this signing, combined with the earlier commitments of four-star linemen Josh Garnett, Nick Davidson, and Graham Shuler, will likely be felt for years to come. First, this haul might finally put to rest the annual concerns regarding the rebuilding of the Cardinal offensive line. Second, the nation's elite quarterbacks and running backs will certainly take notice of what's happening in Palo Alto. Many people smarter than I have noted that Stanford has fielded the best offensive line in the country in each of the past three years, and that unit only looks to be getting better.

For a sneak peek, check out this video. Highlight packages of offensive linemen tend to be boring and repetitive, but this one should be called the International House of Pancakes. And who could ever get bored of pancakes?

What if your older brother really wanted to play football at Stanford but couldn't gain admission? What if he then went to Nebraska, a school thick with football tradition? What if everyone assumed that you'd dutifully follow in your brother's footsteps and become a Cornhusker as well? Would you go?

Ah, but what if you were accepted to Stanford? Would that change your mind? Apparently it changed Andrus Peat's mind, because he surprised almost everyone on Wednesday afternoon and chose the Cardinal over the Cornhuskers.

Peat is an enormous offensive tackle, standing 6'7" and weighing in at 305 pounds, but he's athletic enough to play varsity basketball, a combination which has vaulted him towards the top of almost every recruiting ranking you can find. Rivals.com has him as the sixth-best tackle and 32nd ranked overall recruit, but MaxPreps.com loves him a bit more, calling him the second-best tackle in the land and the #8 overall recruit, and he sits at #9 on the ESPNU 150. Any way you slice it, Peat has the potential to be a dominant collegiate offensive lineman, one of several headed to Palo Alto this fall.

Peat doesn't seem to be as advanced as Kyle Murphy, but he should be a fixture on the Cardinal offensive line as soon as 2013. To keep you warm until then, take a look at his highlight reel...

01/27/2012

Any discussion of 2012 recruits comes with the understanding that even those players who have committed to the Cardinal could change their minds. Nothing is official until national signing day on February 1, 2012, so recruiting news should be read through that filter. It's an inexact science, but it's simply too much fun to ignore.

I spoke to a friend this evening about the state of the current Stanford football recruiting class, and a simple question was posed: "Why would someone choose anyplace but Stanford?" That's a long discussion for another time, but if we focus that question a bit and apply it to someone who blocks out the sun as he stands in a doorway and aspires to be a doctor after playing in the NFL, it just might be the key to what could become the greatest recruiting class in Stanford history.

01/07/2012

Any discussion of 2012 recruits comes with the understanding that even those players who have committed to the Cardinal could change their minds. Nothing is official until national signing day on February 1, 2012, so recruiting news should be read through that filter. It's an inexact science, but it's simply too much fun to ignore.

Imagine that it's twenty-five years from now and Andrew Luck is sitting in his rocking chair looking back on a Hall of Fame NFL career and enjoying his position as one of the greatest living quarterbacks. Even though it's been a quarter century since he wore the Cardinal and White, Stanford fans haven't forgotten him, and they certainly haven't seen another quarterback like him since he left.

If you were Andrew Luck's son, would you want to go to Palo Alto to play quarterback? Would you want to live with those comparisons day after day?

Perhaps more important than that, if you were a high school running back watching the Fiesta Bowl last Monday night and you were trying to decide between playing for Stanford or Oklahoma State, which school would you choose?

It seems simple, doesn't it? So it shouldn't come as any surprise that Barry J. Sanders (son of the Barry Sanders, the 1988 Heisman Trophy winner from Oklahoma State), has chosen Stanford. Sanders (who prefers not to be called Barry, Jr.) spoke often during the recruiting process of the attraction of coming to Stanford and not standing out, not being his father's son, and he noted during a September visit that Andrew Luck, then the clear face of college football, was able to walk campus freely as if he were just a typical student. Next fall, Sanders will do the same thing. When he announced his choice at the tail end of the U.S. Army All-America game, he explained his choice like this: "I get a chance to play with the best student athletes in the world."

12/29/2011

Any discussion of 2012 recruits comes with the understanding that even those players who have committed to the Cardinal could change their minds. Nothing is official until national signing day on February 1, 2012, so recruiting news should be read through that filter. It's an inexact science, but it's simply too much fun to ignore.

The hits just keep on coming. A few days ago we were talking about Nick Davidson and what looked to be the makings of a great group of offensive line commits, and I didn't even mention Brandon Fanaika, who committed on Thursday evening. Fanaika is a 6'3" 293-pound guard from Pleasant Grove, Utah. Scout.com gives him only three stars, but Rivals likes him a bit more, hanging four stars on him and rating him as the sixth-best offensive guard in the country. I don't have the expertise to evaluate his film (although his junior year highlight package shows a big Fanaika pushing around a lot of smaller defensive linemen), but it's always instructive to look at the list of scholarship offers a recruit is entertaining. With Fanaika, the list is impressive: Auburn, BYU, Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA, Utah, Utah State, Washington, and Washington State.

12/25/2011

Any discussion of 2012 recruits comes with the understanding that even those players who have committed to the Cardinal could change their minds. Nothing is official until national signing day on February 1, 2012, so recruiting news should be read through that filter. It's an inexact science, but it's simply too much fun to ignore.

The foundation of any football team, especially a Stanford team, must begin with the offensive line. For proof of this one need look no farther than the group that's been protecting Andrew Luck and clearing the way for Toby Gerhart and Stepfan Taylor for the past three seasons.

For those who are concerned that Stanford Football is ready to fall back off the map the minute Luck moves on to the NFL, the prospective incoming recruiting class offers a quarter ton (and maybe more) of optimism.

09/14/2011

Any discussion of 2012 recruits comes with the understanding that even those players who have committed to the Cardinal could change their minds. Nothing is official until national signing day on February 1, 2012, so recruiting news should be read through that filter. It's an inexact science, but it's simply too much fun to ignore.

The future of Stanford Football got even brighter on Tuesday afternoon when Jordan Watkins made his verbal commitment to the Cardinal. Watkins is a 6'5" 265 pound defensive tackle from College Park, Georgia, and he's the fourth four-star defensive prospect to commit to Stanford's 2012 recruiting class. It can sometimes be difficult for fans to evaluate defensive players based on highlight packages, but you can usually guage a player's prospects based on the list of schools recruiting him. Watkins received thirty-five offers, including scholarships from Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, LSU, Miami, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and Oregon. That list speaks the truth.

09/02/2011

Any discussion of 2012 recruits comes with the understanding that even those players who have committed to the Cardinal could change their minds. Nothing is official until national signing day on February 1, 2012, so recruiting news should be read through that filter. It's an inexact science, but it's simply too much fun to ignore.

Even though all eyes are on San Jose State and the beginning of what's hoped to be the most successful season in Cardinal history, there is news about the future of Stanford football. Early Friday afternoon Luke Kaumatule, a 6'7" 230-pound defensive end from Honolulu, announced his verbal commitment to attend Stanford University. He turned down scholarship from offers from almost every school in the Pac-12, and eventually chose Stanford over Oregon, UCLA, and Cal.

There is a tendency to dismiss prospects from Hawai'i, but both major recruiting services, Rivals and Scout, rate Kaumatule as a four-star prospect. It should also be noted that he plays for the Punahou School, the island powerhouse that produced current Notre Dame All-America linebacker candidate Manti Te'o and failed basketball prospect Barack Obama.

Kaumatule's size is an obvious plus (one high school highlight video lists him at 6'9" and 265, another at 6'8" and 252), as he could easily carry another thirty to forty pounds on his lengthy frame, but scouts also rave about his speed and high motor. He could develop into a fearsome pass rusher in the Cardinal's current 3-4 scheme, but he's also appears to be athletic enough to drop into coverage when needed.

He'll spend this football season rehabilitating an injured knee, but it won't be long before he's wrecking havoc on the defensive line for the Mighty Card.

06/23/2011

Any discussion of 2012 recruits comes with the understanding that even those players who have committed to the Cardinal could change their minds. Nothing is official until national signing day on February 1, 2012, so recruiting news should be read through that filter. It's an inexact science, but it's simply too much fun to ignore.

Bob Whitfield was a year or two behind me when I was a student at Stanford, and I ran into him on campus once as we were both buying a newspaper. At the time I weighed about 175 pounds, stretched rather thin along the length of my 6'3" frame, and I was in complete awe as I stood next to Big Bob. He was about 6'7" and weighed something north of 300 pounds; he was the largest human being I had ever seen and possibly the best lineman ever to play for the Cardinal.

I bring up all of this now because Bob's son, Kodi Whitfield, has just decided to follow in his father's footsteps, making a verbal commitment to attend Stanford in the fall of 2012. One glance at the photo above will tell you that Kodi is not an offensive lineman, but an average sized (6'1", 178, 4.6) wide receiver. Rivals.com rates him as a four-star prospect. He had also received offers from Arizona State, Boise State, Colorado, UCLA, and Washington among others.

Beyond the fact that it will be nice to have a legacy suiting up for the Card, Whitfield's commitment demonstrates a continuation of Stanford's improvement in recruiting at the skill positions. We first saw evidence of this in 2010 and '11 with the hoarding of running back talent, and now Coach Shaw and his staff are addressing the area of biggest need on the offensive side of the ball. (Two other three-star wide receivers, Conner Crane and Deante' Gray, also committed on Thursday, making a total of four wideouts already in the 2012 class.)

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